Get Paid $250 to Share Your Heartwarming Grandma or Pet Story

Update 6/15/25: The deadline to share a pet story has passed, but there are 3 other topics you can submit for!

Got a cherished memory of your grandma or pet? It’s your chance to get it published in a future edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul! Share that special moment, and if selected by the panel of judges, you’ll earn $250 and more. Can’t decide? You can submit multiple stories.

Whether it’s a touching tribute, a laugh-out-loud adventure, or a lesson learned, they want to read it. They’re also accepting other topic submissions, each with various deadlines. Let’s go over the details below and see how you can get included.

What is Chicken Soup for the Soul?

You probably have picked up this book once in your lifetime. Chicken Soup for the Soul is a classic book series packed with real-life, feel-good stories and poems. The comfort of homemade chicken soup, but for your soul.

It launched in the 1990s and became a source of inspiring, relatable stories about family, friendship, pets, and personal growth. It was basically the original collection of heartwarming stories and posts before social media took over. Today, it’s still all about sharing true stories to connect and inspire people. I’m not ashamed to admit my eyes have leaked plenty of times while reading.

Topics for Submission

Chicken Soup for the Soul is accepting story or poem submissions for four different topics, but each has a different deadline. Let’s go from earliest to latest.

Topic: Stories about pets
Deadline Passed: June 14, 2025

If you have an inspirational, heartwarming, funny, silly, or anything-in-between story about your pet (any pet, not just dogs or cats!), then they want it submitted. There are many more pet topic suggestions listed on their site. Some examples include pets as part of the family, pets as heroes, adopting an older pet, how pets have changed lives, and how reluctant pet owners have become passionate ones.

Topic: Grandmothers
Deadline: July 15, 2025

They’re scheduled to publish this book in early 2026 as a gift for grandmothers of all ages, so if you have a wonderful story to tell, you could be included! Grandmothers can write about being a grandma. And anyone can share a story about their grandma, mom, stepmom, or mother-in-law as a grandmother or “honorary” grandmother. Some potential topics can include the challenges of being a grandmother, the joys of becoming a grandmother, spoiling the grandchildren, creating new traditions, and more.

Topic: Miracles, messages from heaven & angels
Deadline: July 31, 2025

If you have a story that will wow people or give them goosebumps, this is your chance to share an incredible event or unbelievable coincidence from your life. Chicken Soup for the Soul is looking for stories about miracles, angels, messages from heaven, premonitions, and other unexplainable but good events. This book will be accessible to everyone, regardless of whether the reader is religious or not. Some potential topics include everyday miracles, mysterious helpers, answered prayers, dreams and premonitions, divine intervention, and more. 

They’re not looking for stories about people who do nice things or eulogies about loved ones who have passed on.

Topic: Funny stories
Deadline: August 30, 2025

This new book is scheduled for publication in 2026. So if you have a funny story that happened to you or someone close to you, they want to hear it! That embarrassing story that makes you want to crawl into a hole, the “you wouldn’t believe what my kid said” story, call out on your spouse, anything that’ll make a reader laugh. Even better when it’s the laugh ‘till it hurts kind. 

Potential topics can include slips of the tongue, misunderstandings, pranks that worked, holiday meltdowns, wardrobe malfunctions, dating disasters, and more.

How to Submit a Story? Are there Limits?

You can submit your story here, but we’ll highlight some of their ground rules and facts that are important to know ahead of time.

• The maximum length of your story or poem should be 1,200 words.
• They won’t accept AI-generated or AI-assisted stories. You can use it for fact-checking or spelling/grammar, but not for writing your story.
• There is no limit to how many stories you can submit to a topic/title, but don’t submit the same story to the same title more than once. 
• You can submit stories and poems to as many different topics/titles as you want!
• It takes years to develop a book. Understand that the selection process can be REALLY long!
• They receive an average of 100 stories a day!

What Happens if They Pick Your Story

Chicken Soup for the Soul will pay you $250 once the book hits shelves. About 60 days before publication, they’ll email you to get permission. Don’t worry, they never publish anything without the author’s consent! 

Along with the $250 per story published perk, you’ll get 10 free copies of the book your story or poem will be in, the ability to buy cases of your books from them at half price, and the exclusive monthly newsletter for their published writers.

The Money Move

Sharing your special stories lets you inspire others, and it’s a great way to earn a little bit of cash! If your story fits one of the four topics above, jump on this chance to earn a reward and see your work published in a popular book series read by millions.